UK quit Erasmus because of Brits’ poor language skills

The U.K. decided to leave the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme because Brits’ poor foreign language skills made membership too expensive to justify, a senior British official has revealed.

Lower take-up of the scheme by British students compared to other nationalities — put down to a weak aptitude for language learning — meant London expected to pay in nearly €300 million more a year than it received back, Nick Leake, a veteran senior diplomat at the U.K. Mission said this week.

It comes as youth organizations on both sides of the channel launch a renewed push for the U.K. to rejoin the scheme — and as an EU advisory body urges the Commission to get negotiations going.

All say the U.K.’s post-Brexit departure has had a “devastating” effect on study and travel opportunities for young people.

But, speaking at a committee meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, Leake told delegates: “I’ll tell you why we didn’t join it: it’s because there’s always been an imbalance between our inability to speak languages very well and therefore to take advantage of the outward mobility opportunities, and people wanting to come to the U.K.”

Leake said that the “only terms on offer” for continued participation in Erasmus during Brexit talks “would have required the U.K. to pay €2 billion more than we would have received over the course of a 7-year program” — around €300 million a year.

“I appreciate that’s not necessarily the only measure of success, but it makes it quite difficult,” he added. “The interests of the U.K. taxpayer is why we decided not to participate in Erasmus+.”

A ‘devastating loss of opportunities’

Leake was representing the British government at a meeting of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), an EU advisory body drawn from civil society organizations across the bloc.

At the session of the body’s external relations section on Wednesday, delegates approved a recommendation calling for the European Commission to “strengthen negotiations with the U.K. government for the full reintegration of the U.K. into Erasmus+.”

The body noted that the position was “officially and strongly supported by both the European Youth Forum and British Youth Council, as well as by many youth organizations across the U.K. and the EU.” The report was approved virtually unanimously, with 77 votes in favor to zero against, with one abstention.

Maurizio Cuttin, the British Youth Council’s ambassador to the European Youth Forum and an advisor on the report, told POLITICO after the meeting that the U.K.’s exit from the Erasmus+ scheme “has resulted in a devastating loss of exchange and educational opportunities for young people on both sides of the Channel.”

He added: “The U.K. government owes it to its young people to provide opportunities to unlock a brighter, skills-induced and prosperous future. Embracing Erasmus+ is undoubtedly the way forward. Students, apprentices and young volunteers deserve nothing less.”

María Rodríguez Alcázar, president of the European Youth Forum, said: “We trust that all the recommendations in the EESC’s opinion, including the U.K.’s reassociation to Erasmus+, will be discussed and implemented by decision makers from both sides of the channel.”

Jan Hendrik Dopheide, a senior EU official working on relations with the U.K., told the same meeting that the Commission was talking to member states about how to proceed on the issue of youth mobility in general.

“Probably a lot more can be done to facilitate youth movement in different circumstances,” he said. “This is an exercise that we have been engaging with our member states and we are in the middle of this process. I cannot preempt where this process is taking us.”

After leaving Erasmus the U.K. set up its own study abroad scheme, called Turing. A recent U.K.-government commissioned analysis found the replacement scheme had failed to meet its targets, with just over 20,000 people taking in the 2021/22 academic year against a hoped-for 35,000. Almost 80 percent of universities and colleges taking part in the scheme reported difficulties with the new application process.

A general election is expected in the U.K. later this year, with pollsters predicting a change in government led by the opposition Labour Party. Labour is yet to commit to rejoining Erasmus, but its Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has argued in favor of reviving U.K. participation in the scheme.